Albert Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough”. Then again, Einstein never faced the challenge of designing and implementing a school district wide curriculum map purposefully designed to facilitate learning without academic gaps and endless repetition.

Every district administrator knows the price chronically absent students pay for poor attendance -- fewer career choices, reduced peer-to-peer socialization, and the inability to benefit from a robust educational experience. But what about the costs to schools, districts and states?

While many states across the nation struggle to find financial solutions to boost retention and job satisfaction rates for educators serving students in rural areas, other states consider alternative solutions to overcome environmental issues that lead to high turnover rates.

Lead your team with strength through a higher purpose. People will naturally do what is needed when they are led by something bigger than themselves. As leaders we need to constantly define, drive, and communicate our higher purpose and our teams will naturally get the results that the purpose serves.

According to Department of Education research there are almost 1.8 million homeschooled (1,773,000 in 2012) students between the ages of 5 and 17 years old in the United States. That number continues to increase, growing by 61.8% between 2003 and 2012. With 24/7 digital classrooms, teachers have an opportunity to impact the lives of these children directly, while creating additional revenue and taking control of their career.

Opportunities for Teachers

Modern technology bridges financial, time and geographic gaps that hindered after-hours tutoring and instruction a few decades ago. With online learning platforms, educators and students can connect from anywhere there is an internet connection, whenever it is convenient or expedient.

Whether a student has fallen behind due to illness or excessive absences, or a teacher wants to work with a motivated homeschool family preparing their child for college entrance exams, 24/7 digital classrooms deliver custom solutions to meet the challenges.

Starting an online school may seem like a daunting task, but today it is easy, and cost effective, for educators and parents. And, some children who struggle in traditional classroom settings thrive in a one-on-one virtual environment. Teachers enjoy the flexibility to design a curriculum specifically targeted toward diverse learning styles without investing in expensive software, hardware and teaching aids.

Expanding Learning Opportunities For Non-Traditional Students

Education enlarges a child's territory with new concepts, experiences, and challenges that prepare him or her for the future. The role of adults is providing opportunities to expand the world in a safe, challenging environment that encourages each child to pursue learning at their own pace.

When you work with a platform like 24/7 Digital Classroom, you set the schedule based on your students' readiness and skill level. There are fundamental advantages for teachers who want to increase their income while improving learning outcomes.

Teachers define their schedules

Educators write their own lesson plans or can enlist the help of our curriculum developers

Instructors establish their personal fee schedules

Work with home school students from anywhere in the world

Establish one-on-one classrooms or teach small groups

Starting an Online School and Teaching Online is Easy

Ready to explore the benefits of teaching online with 24/7 digital classrooms? As the number of homeschooled children continues to climb, so do opportunities for educators to expand their earning potential and increase their career opportunities. We invite you to contact us today to discuss our free resources designed to help you succeed as an online educator. You are only an email away from teaching online or starting your own online school.

24/7 Learning Academy, an EdTech non-profit, advanced to the final round of a national grant competition and is in the running for a $10 million grant from the XQ: Super School Project to rethink and reimagine the American High School.

“We’re extremely honored and excited to have advanced to the final stages of the XQ Super School Project. It has been a journey of exploration, sacrifice, teamwork, and innovative thinking that has shaped our vision and path to building the smart school of the future,” says Justice Jones, Co-founder of 24/7 Learning Academy. “We are thankful and humbled by what we have achieved and the positive impact we can have on the communities we will serve.”

24/7 Learning Academy will be the first charter high school in Burlington County, New Jersey, located in the town of Willingboro. This groundbreaking charter school is committed to prepare and enable students of Burlington County to live fruitful and rewarding lives as valued contributors to society. 24/7 Learning Academy’s core team designed an educational model that focuses on personalized and experiential learning approaches that will provide a holistic education. Students will not only take their core competencies and selected electives; they will play an active role in their education. Students will achieve this by choosing an educational track based on their interests in different fields, such as healthcare, finance, law and advocacy, the arts, and entrepreneurship while learning through real-world internships in their selected track, and community projects.

“I cannot adequately express the excitement that I have in playing a role in bringing the school of the future to my hometown,” stated Diallyo Diggs, Co-founder of 24/7 Learning Academy. “Our team has worked diligently to create a learning institution that will consistently grow and develop with our students and our community. I hope, through this school, we can demonstrate how truly collaborative education can be and how educating our youth is truly a community activity.”

Being true to its name, 24/7 Learning Academy is changing the concept of the traditional 8-hour school day with an on-site facility open 24/7 by providing students and parents 24/7 access to technological and educational resources. In addition, 24/7 Learning Academy will offer schedule flexibility which will provide students with the opportunity and time, during school hours, to gain real-life, hands-on experience through internships and participation in community activities, while still attending to their schoolwork. “By throwing away the convention of an 8-hour school day, our mission is a school that provides our students with a 21st Century education by combining traditional content, real-life skills, and social development 24/7,” says Widlyne Antoine-Filion, Co-founder.

XQ: The Super School Project, launched in September 2015, is an open call to rethink and redesign the American High School. Thousands of applicants and tens of thousands of supporters from towns and cities across the country have united to take on this important work. Teams of students, teachers, parents, and community leaders, to name just a few, came together to conceptualize innovative models for 21st-century learning and create a pathway to success for students.

A previous boss once taught me that "it is better to ask for forgiveness than permission." Having just finished Herminia Ibarra's Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader made me realize how truly valuable this lesson was.

It is up to us to become the person—and leader—we want to be. To do so, we need to act as if we already were in that role so that others can envision us in that role. It seems contrarian, but is unfortunately true. And by acting that way, we also expand our own image of who we are and who we can become.

As per Herminia Ibarra in her book Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader, to become the leader we'd like to be, we should act first and think second. This is because acting offers "outsight" (insight from the outside) that thinking won't provide.

Herminia Ibarra, in her book Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader, explains that to become the leader you want to be, you have to first do it and then reflect on what worked and what didn't. Most people do the opposite: they think about becoming the leader they want to be (or try to find the time for this), rather than just becoming that leader.

One of the topics Herminia delves into is how leaders need to be change agents. She explains that to do this, they need to spend time with those outside of their team and network, seeing trends and potential problems, formulating plans and strategies to deal with these, and then bringing these back to their teams.

Michael's premise, as his title suggests, is that a traditional education will not teach you anything useful and will not help you succeed. He brings examples of many millionaires who did not get a college degree (or for those who did, that did not go on for an advanced degree). He also lists the practical skills that he believes are necessary for success, which include sales and marketing.

A young friend of mine was just let go from a job after four months. Things had started going badly fairly quickly and her boss was acting irrationally. Turns out her boss has not had an assistant last longer than four months.

Why are senior management and HR not doing something about this?

If this woman were so valuable to the company that despite her atrocious management and people skills she was necessary, then take away her staff and let her partner with someone who can manage. But chances are she's not that valuable or irreplaceable.

Starting an employee off right, with proper onboarding, is good business sense. It allows them to ramp up quickly and starts the relationship off well.

Offboarding matters just as much. When an employee is leaving you want to treat them with just as much respect. Not only will they remain an advocate of you and your brand, but it will make those who are staying happy to do so.

There's the traditional ones (e.g., Myers Briggs), the strength-based ones put forth by Marcus Buckingham, and the ones by various authors (e.g., Gretchen Rubin's Four Tendencies in Better than Beforeor Sally Hogshead's test and system in How the World Sees You). I just discovered another interesting one today, The Genius Test...and then of course there are the fun ones on Facebook (e.g., Which Disney Princess/Universe/City etc. are you?). You'd think all we care about is categorizing ourselves.

I mentioned to a friend the other day that I had read this great book about finding one's calling (Art of Work by Jeff Goins). We talked for a few minutes and then he said something profound: everyone wants meaning to their lives.

That sentence has replayed in my head on and off since then, and I'll take it a step further: everyone wants to matter.

Not only do they need meaning in what they do—to know their jobs matter—but they need to know that they matter too.

There is a magic to fresh starts. I remember loving to start a new notebook when in school and I still get that rush when starting anything new as an adult. For years, when trying to motivate myself to do something, I'd find that magical moment of newness plus added significance to make it stick.

I started reading Gretchen Rubin's Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Livesthis weekend. The premise of this book is that habits, because they don't require choice, free up your willpower and mental resources to be spent elsewhere. Gretchen then digs into the different types of people and ways to help establish new habits.

The way Gretchen categorizes people is whether they're motivated by internal or external expectations. Upholders are motivated by both, Questioners by internal expectations and they question external ones, Obligers are motivated by external expectations and often ignore internals ones, and Rebels are motivated by neither. Understanding this helps explain why certain things work for some people and not others. For example, for an Obliger to actually stick to a new habit like exercise, they need a partner they don't want to disappoint, otherwise they're likely to do something else for someone else.

The premise of the book is that 20% of effort begets 80% of the results, so you should only be spending your time on the effective 20%. You do this first by optimizing all your tasks, then automating or outsourcing most of what's left and only doing what no one else can do for you. This is similar to what's been discussed in other books I've read and written about, but he adds a twist.

I probably don't have to tell you the wonders that books have to offer, but sometimes you're lucky enough to pick up just the right book at the right time. The last time this happened to me, I had picked-up Body of Work by Pamela Slim.

This time it's The Art of Workby Jeff Goins (and yes, I've noticed the similarity in titles and theme).

Jeff's book is basically about finding your calling and the stages you have to go through to get there, along with inspiring examples from his life and others. His subtitle says it all: a proven path to discovering what you were meant to do.

Is there something you've avoided doing or trying? Something all your family and friends assure you you'll enjoy? Or something the world has embraced but yet you're sure is not for you?

If you've answered yes to any of the above, do yourself a favor and try the thing you've been stubbornly avoiding.

That was me about giving up a QWERTY keyboard for the longest time. In my defense, I did try a virtual keyboard once before and hated it, so I stuck with one version of QWERTY or other since. I'd have phones that were barely functional, but hey, I could type long and quick e-mails thanks to my physical keyboard.

I finished reading Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo by Nicholas Carlson this weekend. As fascinating as it was reading about all the various CEOs that came and went prior to Marissa, one thing stood out.

Each time a CEO was brought in, it was for certain skills and never for their leadership ability. Yes, bottom line and ROI is important and yes, a CEO needs to know enough to be able to give input on the company's strategy and know what to look for in senior-level hires, but a CEO also needs to be the heart and sole of the company and brand.

Yahoo was one of the first to take advantage of the World Wide Web and the Internet, started by two college kids who built a directory for themselves. They succeeded despite themselves: they had no interest in running a business but had found something new and much needed, got funding and "adult" supervision, and the rest is history.

I started reading Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahooby Nicholas Carlson. I haven't gotten very far but since much of the introduction dealt with the "stacked" performance review system she brought from Google to Yahoo, it got me thinking about reviews in general.

What is the purpose of a review? Traditionally they're meant to discuss how the person is performing, whether there are any areas that need improvement, where they personally want to grow, and any raises/promotions on the table. Although the "annual" review may still be necessary to formalize raises and promotions, if the goal is to have high performing and engaged employees, performance reviews should be ongoing. The annual part can be a paper signed by all parties.

I finished reading The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan over the weekend and was touched by their chapter on living a life without regrets. They explain how all those interviewed near death usually regret the things they did not do or try. Using their method to determine your one thing can help avoid this.

It reminded me of something I used to do when in my twenties: avoid "what if's." I would force myself to ask difficult questions, either of myself or friends, and/or try challenging things since I did not want to ever wonder "what if." It was my personal motto for quite a few years but I honestly had forgotten this until reading this chapter.